W&L Women's Cross Country Claims 2015 ODAC Title

Oct 31, 2015

BRIDGEWATER, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's cross country team claimed its first Old Dominion Athletic Conference title since 2012 on Saturday at Bridgewater College, finishing first out of the 10 teams competing in the championship.

The Generals totaled 46 total points to finish ahead of Bridgewater, who completed the event with 64 points. EMU finished third with 70 points and Royal Hannah Chappell-Dick was the individual champion, finishing in 22:21.9 to earn ODAC Runner of the Year and ODAC/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. W&L Head Coach Mike Dager was honored as the ODAC Coach of the Year.

W&L claimed three runners in the Top 10 and five in the Top 18 finishers led by first-year Samantha Yates (Birmingham, Ala. / St. Paul's School), who placed second with a time of 22:30.1 en route to earning the ODAC Rookie of the Year award. Classmate Maggie Seybold (Cockeysville, Md. / McDonogh School) crossed the finish line in fourth place with a time of 22:49.4. Both earned First Team All-ODAC honors based upon their finishes.

Sophomore Rachel Steffen (Coronado, Calif. / Coronado) garnered Second Team All-ODAC laurels after placing 10th overall out of 82 runners with a time of 24:01.7. She was joined on the second team by sophomore Lily Arnold (Jacksonville, Fla. / The Bolles School), who completed the course in 24:22.2 to finish in 12th place.

First-year Kirsten McMichael (Eighty Four, Pa. / Ringgold) also scored for the Generals, finishing in 18th place with a time of 24:40.0.

The conference title was the 15th in the 30 seasons that W&L has fielded a women's cross country program. The Generals will return to action on November 14 when they take part in the NCAA South/Southeast Region Championships hosted by Shenandoah University.